Zimbabwe's government has ordered all state schools to slash their fees as it struggles with an economic crisis desperately crying out for massive foreign aid, a local official newspaper said on Sunday.
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told a Friday May Day rally a new unity government he formed with his rival President Robert Mugabe in February to try end a political and economic crisis was broke and could not meet union demands for higher wages.
Zimbabwe's Sunday Mail newspaper said Education Minister David Coltart had recommended state schools catering for a majority of Zimbabwean students should cut their fees when they open for a new term on Tuesday because many parents could not afford them. "I cannot divulge the figures at the moment because the recommendations are going to the (government) principals Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara on Monday. However, what we want are substantial cuts," he was quoted as saying.
Coltart was not available for further comment. The Sunday Mail said the minister was reducing the fees because Zimbabwe had so far failed to get the huge financial aid it needs to repair a shattered economy with a 90 percent jobless rate.
The Zimbabwean government set school fees in state schools at between $20 and $280 a term two months ago, but many parents have failed to pay, citing low wages and high living costs.
On Friday, Tsvangirai said the power-sharing administration his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had formed with Mugabe's ZANU-PF party was bankrupt and unable to raise the current monthly salary of $100 it is paying its workers to the $454 being demanded as a minimum wage by unions.